A Family Note

Details: Created on Tuesday, 14 November 2017 18:01; Written by Dan Stein

SHEFFIELD- The Millers Run School has searched far and wide for a new music teacher. However little did they know that their musical savior was right their in front of their eyes the whole time.

Principal Patrick Ham reached out to potential hires after the schools previous music teacher left for another job because she was seeking more hours. "being a young person she wanted to find a job with more time than two days a week, she took a job on the western side of the state and im really happy for her". explained Ham. The school started to look in May and found a significant amount of more than qualified candidates. "Some of them were from pretty far away, Michigan, Connecticut, New York". "But when they see two days a week they want full time instead". The principal was actually forced to balance being a principal and helping out substituting for the music class simultaneaously to fill in the vacancy of the music teacher position. "We wanted music, music is important to me and important to my family, we had a community member donate ten-thousand dollars worth of equipment so we wanted to honor the community and put it to good use". said Ham.

Then, everything changed a few weeks ago. "We had this young person say, hey Ive got a couple a weeks in my schedule I wouldnt mind teaching music, and shes got a degree in music, her name is Lydia Ham shes actually my dauhgter".

The musical savior they were searching for all along was finally here. Lydia Ham is the daughter of Principal Patrick Ham and graduated with a music degree from Messiah College. "This was the community I grew up in, when I saw they needed a music teacher i applied because its close to home and this is the community Ive spent most of my life in".

Lydia says working with her dad is great. "Its kind of fun because my aunt also teaches here so theres Miss Ham, Mr. Ham and Mrs. Ham, it confuses the kids but its fun".

Her dad has always been an ispiration to her for teaching and it is a truly great experience for her because "she gets to teach along side him after looking up to him all those years".

Her father Patrick is grateful that his daughter has taken on this opportunity to teach music. "Its funny on Sunday nights I say, hey Lydia I get to take you to work with me tomorrow only youre going to work too, seeing her work with kids has been really amazing".

Lydia plans to obtain a masters degree in the future.